6 spectacular train trips from North America

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the railroad revolutionized transportation In North America, permanently accelerating the rhythm of trips across the continent. Currently, many of those railroad roads house an assortment of Historical trains of excursionthat invite travelers to reduce speed and enjoy a great day.

The trains shown below are destinations in themselvessince they offer a Mixture of spectacular views, dinners on board and glorious outdoor observation cars.

They cross deserts, mountains, forests and cannons, thrown by diesel and steam engines, and reach places of nature that can only be accessed by rail.

Son Rolling Lessons of Geology and Ecologynot to mention history. Most are accessible, None costs more than $ 150and each one offers a window to the diverse beauty of this continent.

One of the most picturesque train routes in Canada begins in the city of Sault Ste. Marie, just across the border between Michigan and Ontario.

Initially conceived to transport wood and iron mineral in the area, The old Railway central algoma crosses the Agawa Canyon, 1.2 billion years oldon such a picturesque route that has been offering some type of passenger service focused on leisure.

At present, it is the tourist train of the Agawa Canyon, which offers an entire day excursions in which travelers have plenty of time to enjoy the landscape both on board and on foot.

The train It leaves at 8 in the morning and travels 170 kilometers for four hours through the wild places of the Canadian shieldwith pre -embedded comments that highlight the points of interest of the journey.

At kilometer 153, The train descends 152 meters to the bottom of the canyon (Accessible only by rail), where passengers can disembark for 90 minutes to explore the trails, the panoramic viewpoint and the waterfalls of the Agawa Canyon Park before the trip back home.

The train works from Friday to Monday in August, when tickets cost 150 Canadian dollars (about 104 dollars), already daily during the high foliage season (166 dollars). You can take care of food in advance, bring yours or climb to the new “Theater Wagon” Stone Gardner, with its rotating ligs and a giant rear window (500 dollars, including breakfast, food and drinks).

Cultural tours are also offered by the cannon guided by indigenous people, in addition to special exits by train with guides on board both of the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center and the entomica Insectarium, possibly the only train tour of the world with the theme of aviation and entomology.

In 1885 the California Western Railroad was built to help Extract wood from Mendoza County forestsin northern California. Century and a half later, the railroad is an accessible and panoramic form of contemplate the seniors that remain in the region, the highest living beings on the planet.

The skunk train (or zorrillo train, nicknamed by the gas wagons he adopted in the 1920s), It transports visitors in old passenger cars (Now smell -free), in addition to an outdoor merchandise car, along two panoramic routes through the Secuoyas region, one from each end of the line.

From Willits, the Wolf Tree Turn excursion offers a 24 -kilometer and two -hour round trip through the Noyo River Canyon, full of 1,500 -year -old seduoyas; In the middle of the way, travelers can get off and marvel at the werewolf of the same name of the route, one of the largest and oldest in the forest (tickets from $ 65, from March to December, with trains that circulate four to five times a week during summer and autumn).

At the other end of the line, Pudding Creek Express runs parallel to a estuary in its 5 km route from Fort Bragg to Glen Blair Junctiona clear next to the tracks in a seduoy forest.

The return trip is flexible: take the same train back after a quick stretch of the legs (a round trip of 1.5 hours), take a train later or make the way back on foot along a gravel path (there are also guided tours on foot and bicycle excursions on available roads).

The trips are made throughout the year (From $ 50) with varied schedules, sometimes they are thrown by the super skunk, a restored Baldwin steam locomotive. Some weekend nights, the junction becomes the Glen Blair Bar, a hidden bar between secuoyas with live music, games and marshmallows, which can only be reached on the Zorrillo train.

Western Virginia is a Historical Railway Brotheren.

One of its pillars is the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroadwhich leads visitors to Touugh, a deep gun of the Apalaches forest that can only be accessed by train or foot.

The Route has a great landscape and historical value: George Washington gave name to the cannon during his topographic expedition of 1748, and his steep ridges are an anide habitat for the Eagles Calvas, that the guides on board help travelers to see the train.

The usual tour of Potomac Eagle is round trip 52 kilometers from the city of Romney to the touughwith a picturesque crossing a bridge. The passengers remain aboard the train, whose five kinds of service range from bank seats and lunch to four levels of restaurants on board, each with their own period cafeteria.

Two outdoor observation cars They complete the set of trains, regularly thrown by a restored diesel of the 1950s with the colors of Baltimore and Ohio, the old railway operator.

In addition to the three -hour Troaugh trip (adult tickets from $ 74, from April to November), plus Sunset Troough trips in certain Summer nightsPotomac Eagle occasionally performs excursions all day to Petersburg, where passengers can join An excursion to nearby caverns Smoke Holecovered with stalactites.

The passenger train lives a great moment in Mexico, with the new Mayan train in Yucatán and the Interoceanic train from Costa to Coast, which launched an ambitious plan to revitalize the interurban railroad throughout the country.

But if what you are looking for is a train tourist excursion through Mexico, take The Chepe, better known as The Copper Barrancas Train.

The Copper Barrancas line, 585 kilometers, It opened in 1961 after 60 years of constructionjoining the desert city of Chihuahua with Los Mochison the coast, and crossing a larger and deep cannon system than the Grand Canyon.

The railroad is a wonder of engineering, since It rises from sea level to a maximum height of 2,000 meters; In one of its 86 tunnels, the roads descend 30 meters while giving a 180 degree turn inside the cannon walls.

Until recently, the Chepe (abbreviation from Chihuahua to the Pacific), was one of Mexico’s few passenger trains, and a regular train without luxuries – the regional chepe – still travels the entire length of the line.

Since 2018, Chepe Express, a luxury tour train With a bar wagon with panoramic windows (the first class has a bar with outdoor terrace and preferential access to the vaulted restaurant car), which circulates between Los Mochis and Creel’s mountainous city.

He full -trip trip, nine -hourit costs from 2,900 pesos, about 143 dollars (the first class costs 5,400 Mexican pesos), although shorter paths can also be reserved (and itineraries of several nights); The Fort A Creel, which includes most of the 39 bridges of the line, is the essential panoramic stretch.

Built in 1880 and declared a National Historical Monument, This narrow line of 96 kilometers -which is proclaimed as the Steam railway “longer and tall” in North America– It runs between Antonito (Colorado) and Chama (New Mexico), crossing the state border 11 times while crossing forests of Álamos Tremones, Altiplans and steep cannons (the fans of Indiana Jones and the last crusade will recognize the Cums & Toltec of the initial scene of the film).

The train borders a steep cliff While traveling the two highest points on the line, bordering the 243 meter Toltec gorge and zigzagging through the passage of summits, of 3,052 meters, the highest railway mountain pass in the United States; In the alpine meadows of the top snow bursts can be seen even in summer.

From May to October various excursions of each terminal, most with lunch at the intermediate point; A trip through the full route lasts seven hours, more an hour back by bus (tickets from $ 135).

There are four kinds of service, including the hall with mahogany panels, but all travelers can enjoy Outdoor gondola carnot to mention the application of historical guide activated by GPS and the clearly analog emotion of being transported by one of the five restored steam locomotives.

PT Barnum called it “The second largest show on Earth” when It opened in 1869but the Mount Washington Cog Railway Superlative hollow.

Es The second stepped railroad on the planetas well as the first zip railway to climb mountains of the world, which uses a Zip and pinion system to ascend to the highest peak of the northeast.

At its top – a sub -artic tundra – unprecedented weather phenomena were recorded, such as The largest surface wind ever observed directly (371 KPH, in 1934) and temperatures of up to -43 degrees Celsius (before the thermal sensation).

However, The COG works all year And it offers round -trip trips one hour from the Marshfield base station (823 meters), halfway from the mountain, to the Waubek station (1,188 meters), where hot drinks are served and there are bonfires prepared to make s’mores (roasted marshmallows).

From May to October, trains come out every hour to the top (1,800 meters), where travelers can explore the Tip Top House, the original hotel (now museum).

Most trips are made with Biodiesel locomotives, but some continue to upload the mountain with steam machines fed with coal; Tickets cost between $ 52 in winter and $ 99 in summer for a three -hour round trip with steam locomotive.

Michael Harmon / The New York Times. Special for Clarín

Translation: Patricia Sar